September 20, 2018 12:43 PM

MNRE has proposed to ministry to reduce timelines for commissioning of Solar Projects. MNRE antedates that to catalyse the pace of addition of solar capacities and timely achieve 100 GW of solar targets, a more stringent commissioning timelines should be set. MNRE proposes to reduce commissioning schedule of solar projects in solar parks from 21 months to 15 months (9 months for Financial Closure & 6 months for construction) and for projects outside solar parks to 18 months (12 months for Financial Closure & 6 months for construction).

Developers are reluctant to such proposals as it will put more pressure on project execution. Developers are experiencing other issues like inadequate transmission capacities, GST Uncertainty and safeguard duty and such brackets would dismay developers. Government must focus on augmenting transmission capacities so that solar additions are not hindered by power evacuation bottlenecks.